Many disciplines require large high-resolution geometric models. High-resolution models of complex systems, such as geological reservoir models, often require huge data sets and therefore exceed the capacity of generally deployed hardware.
The last decade of the 20th century saw great advances in computer technology. One example is the widespread use of computer networks such as the Internet. The near universal access to computer networks provides new ways of using computers. For example, the client-server computation model has become very popular. In the client-server approach a user accesses a data set stored on a “server” computer using a user interface or application program on a “client” computer. In networked computer systems it is possible to allow the various computers that make up the network to have different roles in an overall solution. For example, one computer may provide database storage, another high-speed computation, a third graphics, and a fourth client interface. In a network it is also possible to have multiple computers working in parallel to solve a given problem.
Even though computer network bandwidth has increased substantially in recent years, due to the size of many geometric models their rapid transmission over a network is not practical.
For many applications, the manipulation and analysis of a geometric model does not require the highest available resolution. Furthermore, it is often desirable to access part of the model at a high resolution and other parts of the model at a lower resolution. Co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/163,075 entitled Modeling at More Than one Level of Resolution, filed Sep. 29, 1998 (hereinafter '075) and Ser. No. 09/228,714 entitled Scalable Visualization for Interactive Geometry Modeling, filed Jan. 12, 1999 (hereinafter '714), both of which are incorporated herein by reference, describe systems and methods for building models at more than one level of resolution as well as for visualizing multiresolution models. These applications describe a method and system in which a dynamic multiresolution model may be created or updated without requiring the complete rebuild of the model when new elements are added or elements are changed. For example, geoscience models are usually made up of a large number of surfaces called horizons. According to the methods of '075 and '714 surfaces may be added to the model without requiring a complete rebuild of surface representations.
It would be desirable to provide a mechanism for distributed access and distributed interactive construction of multiresolution geometric models.